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Tommy Vercetti

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Posts posted by Tommy Vercetti

    GH KH Remineralize RO / DI questions

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 2/28/2023 at 3:39 AM, Andy's Fish Den said:

    If you are just wanting to keep the GBR in your aquarium, they should be fine in your tap water. My tap water tests harder than what you have, and I have no problem keeping GBR and black rams, as well as wild caught angels and discus. fish are amazingly adaptable. I have an RO/DI unit that I can use to make pure water if I want, but I only use it when I first bring in any new wild fish or am attempting to spawn and raise fry of any species that need the softened water. 

    Do you think that it could be my nitrates at 30ppm? I could lower this by adjusting my fertilizers. Or maybe my Rams were sick and I could not tell.

    I am feeling frustrated and would like to succeed with Rams. 

    I am feeding live baby brine shimp, twice a day. Feeding with xtreme food nano sinking pellets and or bug bites in the evening to supplement the BBS.

    GH KH Remineralize RO / DI questions

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Tommy Vercetti

    On 2/27/2023 at 12:46 PM, knee said:

    What do you need it for? Breeding? Wild caught fish?

    I just want to keep German Blue Rams alive in my setup. I might be missing something but it just seems that my water is way too hard for GBR.

    Thanks again for all of your help. 

    GH KH Remineralize RO / DI questions

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 2/27/2023 at 11:41 AM, knee said:

    Before I did. Now I just do 50/50 RO/tap because I don't wanna have extra plugs for the pump and heater because I'm lazy and this eliminates a lot of steps for me lol.

    I would collect my RODI water before I change the water and I add hot tap water to match tank temp.

    I am going to count that as 1 vote for 50/50 RO / tap. Thanks for the information. At 50/50 I would be slightly out of my ideal ranges for GH and KH. I wonder if that would be "close enough" for my needs.

    GH KH Remineralize RO / DI questions

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 2/27/2023 at 11:21 AM, knee said:

    I've used one of those big trash cans with wheels and that's where I mixed my water. I mix it a few days earlier or a few hours before water change, depending on how lazy I'm feeling. I put a pump and heater inside to circulate the water and keep temp the same, then I connect a hose to the pump to refill my aquarium.

    Not sure what's the most cost effective way because I just used seachem products. 

     

    Thanks for sharing your setup. Do you use Seachem alkaline buffer and Equilibrium?

    GH KH Remineralize RO / DI questions

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Tommy Vercetti

    Hello fellow fish nerms! I have a few questions about RO / DI water.

     

    Why?: I have not had success with German Blue Rams. I had a pair and the male died in 2 weeks and the female died in 4 weeks. Their color was good and they were active and eating until they would just stop eating and then about 3 days later they would die.

    Tank Setup:

    16 Gallon Cube with Co2 reactor (home made out of abs pipe fittings) and canister filter (Fluval 107)

    Lily pipes with surface skimmer

    Dosing EI method fertilizers on a dosing pump

    50% WC every Sunday

     

    Logic?: My parameters are good except for water hardness (too hard):

    Temperature 80F

    CO2 30ppm

    Ammonia 0ppm

    Nitrite 0ppm

    Nitrate  30ppm

    PH 7.2

    Phosphates 2ppm

    GH 21d/375ppm

    KH 9d/161ppm

     

    Questions: I have decided to invest in an RO/DI system and I had originally planned on using a 50/50 mix of Tap and RO/DI but the maths show that would leave me with GH 10.5 and KH 4.5 and also leave me with less control of hardness than if I remineralize the RO/DI water myself. Which leave me with the following questions:

    1. What is the best way remineralize the water?

    2. What is the most cost effective way?

    3. What is the easiest way?

    4. Should I buy a container to store the RO/DI water and remineralize the water in this container, then pump it to my aquarium for water change?

    5. Reserved for the things that I don't yet know that I don't know 😉

     

    Thank you for sharing your help and knowledge on this subject

    Low pH in new planted tank

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Tommy Vercetti

    On 2/26/2023 at 3:51 PM, Shadow said:

    So today's readings are a bit weird...I read this is often due to water changes killing nitrite eating bacteria or that bacteria just colonizing the tank, still being a low count. Anyways, my Ammonia is ZERO finally. @Tommy Vercetti the idea of increasing to daily 50% until it went to zero worked. Now, however, my Nitrites have started to spike at the end of each day post water changes. Right now mine is in the 2.0-5.0 range according to the API test kit(its says its well away from expiration FYI, 2027) and the Co Op Test Strips show closer to the same thing. From some of the literature online I read, it says DO NOT rush to do a partial water change again. This will possibly kill the remaining early colonization of bacteria. Says things should clear themselves and level out by next water change. 

    My question to you all is this...is this true and also should I back off my water changes? I am not feeding the fish but very small amounts 3x a day and allowing the shrimp to finish off whatever bottom wafers, other waste there is. I will include today's numbers below...

     

     

     

     

    Your nitrite spike is expected. Continue with the water changes daily. And my guess is in 3 or 4 days you will have 0 Nitrites.

    • Like 1

    Low pH in new planted tank

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by Tommy Vercetti

    That power of the stratum to lower the ph will diminish in a few months. 

     

    If you really want to raise your PH you can use sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). There is a formula to how much to add. But I never ise it. In my opinion, stable PH is much better than chasing any given number. 

    Yes, new stratum can easily bring your ph to 6.6 to 6.2. I would not be too concerned because I have used it for two tanks for over 1 year and have had no losses in either set up.

    • Like 1

    bugs on red root floaters

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    They look like Black Bean aphids to me.

    I would manually remove them. Anything you use to kill them will likely kill your shrimp because they are both invertebrates. 

    I had some on my fountain about 2 years ago but my fish ate them. I would push them off the floating plants and the fish (guppies) would attack immediately.

    • Thanks 1

    Tank(s) not cycling--too much plants?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Ammonia and nitrites should read zero in a cycled tank. The Nitrate could be very close to zero depending on how many plants and how much you feed the aquarium.

     

    Also regarding the api  test kit: I like them and use them but find often times that the Nitrate test is not very repeatable. The bottles require (at least) 1 minute of vigorous shaking before adding to the test tube.

    You could try to skip a water change and then test right before the next scheduled water change. I would still not be surprised to see 0 nitrates in a highly planted tank. 

    Those floating plants are probably doing their job and eating the Nitrate. 

    • Like 1
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